Next day, the 11th of April, I had agreed with Vicki we would load cruising gear. At 1000hrs I launched the dinghy and motored out to Elektra and climbed aboard, opened up, started her engine, dropped mooring and motored her into St Anthony beach by 1030hrs. Coming in very slowly, I let her keels ground at almost stop and kept her engine in slow ahead until she stopped rocking and was hard aground, with the tide dropping fast, it didn’t take long. Once happy I stopped her engine, packed and locked up and went ashore in the dinghy and drove home.
Now at home Vicki and I moved all the gear (cooking pots, plates and dishes, cushions, covers, bedding, charts, pilot books, waterproofs, ect) from places around the house to easy lift from the door. I put my boots on and start loading the pick-up, a full load with my teliscopic ladder going on last!. A quick hot drink and we drive down to Elektra at St Anthony, my pick-up is a 4×4, so I am able to drive onto the beach and park beside Elektra now with the tide out. I open the tail gate, remove the ladder and open out, Vicki climbs up and unlocks Elektra. When Vicki is ready I stand on the tailgate and start handing up bags over the guard wires at just above my head height, we stop a few times to let Vicki move some of the stuff coming aboard. When I had spare time I attached a line to the petrol gen (used for power on winter mooring) and lower it from the cockpit to the ground. I also get the keg (folding claw anchor) from the bathtub under the cockpit floor attach the line to a stern cleat and drop the anchor and line over the stern. By this time Vicki had emptied bags and they needed to be removed. I loaded the petrol gen into the pick-up and and some empty bags and boxes. I pulled the anchor out astern and set in the mud/gravel bottom ready to pull her off into deeper water later. Once everything was loaded and put away we locked up Elektra and drove home, Vicki when in and made a late lunch and hot drink while I emptied the pick-up.
Later about 1700hrs, I went back to St Anthony with 50lts of water, launched the dinghy and out to Elektra loaded the water onto the foredeck and poured into her water tank, the tide was coming back but she wasn’t yet floating. I got her ready to move and started her engine when her stern started to lift. Once floating about 1830hrs I pulled her out astern via the keg anchor and lifted it aboard. I then motored Elektra back to her swing mooring. There I put away the keg anchor, packed and locked up and got ready to leave her, lowered the empty water cans to the dinghy and motored back to the beach, pulled dinghy out and drove home. The next 2 days I went back to work for a rest! Lol.
Love Sailing 